Communion Message
(He would not drink)
September 18-19, 1999
Pastor Don Sheley

For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 

Paul has made it clear that as frequently as we participate publicly in the communion service we're telling again the story of the cross in very visible form. So each Lord's Day we go back to the cross to see is we can see something we haven't seen before. Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear His cross. And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull, they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink. Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: "They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots." Sitting down, they kept watch over Him there. Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, "This Man is calling for Elijah!" Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink. The rest said, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him." And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. 

It's always fascinated me about that cup that appeared there at Calvary. You see this draught of vinegar mingled with gall or as Mark more accurately expresses it, wine mingled with myrrh, put upon a reed in the last hour in which Jesus hung on the cross. This draught was offered to Him as He stood by the cross before He was nailed to it, and the sponge full of vinegar was given in response to His cry; I thirst. The draught was a cup of spiced wine. It contained a drug intended to stupefy. It was the rude chloroform of the day. The other was only a sop to cool the burning fever of His tongue. You see, there was in Jerusalem a society of benevolent women who gently moved with pity had a gracious ministry to the outcasts, to the fallen, and to the criminals. It was their custom to provide this draught of wine mingled with myrrh that the felon on his cross might have the agony and the horror of his crucifixion dulled and his senses deadened while death was making the slow conquest of his life. The cup filled with this spice and stupefying wine was set down at the foot of the cross and then placed in the hands of Jesus. He knew its purpose. He recognized the office its kindly donors intended to fulfill, and surely a thrill of gratitude passed through His heart. But with perfect courtesy, with a deep regard for so beautiful a deed, He takes the cup in His hands, lifts it to His lips, and tastes it. But when He had merely tasted it He set it down again. He wound not drink. 

Question. Why would not Jesus drink of this cup? He did not usually disregard any gracious service done to Him. When He set by the well of Samaria He eagerly sought and gratefully accepted the water from the woman's hand, but now when He is spent with hours of fasting with both flesh and heart faint, and frail after the ordeal of the night, when He is face to face with the agony of the cross He refuses the cup offered to Him by kindly hands. Why? Because He will not have His senses drugged. He will not have His mind clouded. He will not suffer any unspiritual aid to be given to His resolve. He will be fully master of Himself in the hour of death. He will go through the valley of the shadow of death with every sensibility and keen tension with every faculty and unclouded clearness with body, soul, and spirit poured out in an act of dying for the sins of mankind. 

Now the death of Christ was His supreme work. The work He desired with anguish to accomplish. The work for which He took our flesh and veiled His godhead, and in that dying act He assumed our sins. He bore our guilt. He suffered our penalty. He offered Himself, our sacrifice, and as He stands beside the cross He is laying Himself down on the altar of God, and He will do this great deed in the full might of a willing conscience, unclouded sacrifice. He will not lay down His life with a torpid body, half dead sensibilities, a dulled mind, and a clouded spirit. He will do this great deed as is required to be done in full self-consciousness thereby to make the sacrifice perfect. He drew from no natural resources nor divine resources to diminish the payment for sins. One writer in a hymn wrote these words; He could have called ten thousand angels to set Him free, but He didn't do it. He could have drank that cup, stilled His nerves, silenced the pain, and drugged His body for the ordeal of death. He didn't do it because He wanted that sacrifice to be perfect, and no mortal of history can ever accuse Jesus of ever diminishing the price He paid at Calvary for the sins of all mankind, for your sins and for mine. His commitment was complete. The sacrifice was perfect and He paid the full extent, felt its pain to the utmost, to save us. Now He's our Savior and we're forgiven. Amen.

Let's kneel before Him. Lord Jesus we humbly bow before You today and we thank you that You in no way diminished the payment, reduced the cost, to pay for our salvation. You paid the dept in full, and because of that we can come to You and seek forgiveness, and we do that now dear Jesus. Please forgive us from all of our sins. Please cleanse us. Please wash us. We recognize that You never intended this table to be for saints. It's for sinners like all of us. And there's not a one of us who kneel here today who claim any degree of perfection. We're sinners and I'm a sinner, and I need Your grace and Your forgiveness like all the rest of us here who kneel here this morning. I've wandered at times from righteousness. I have thought things I should not have thought, said words I should not have said, and acted in a way that was unbecoming as a Christian. For this Lord Jesus, I seek Your forgiveness and Your cleansing today, and because the sacrifice was perfect the forgiveness is complete and I thank you for that dear Jesus. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. Wonderful Jesus. Matchless Redeemer. Eternal Christ. Glorious Redeemer. God of all gods, our Father. Thank you, and everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet the folks that have come to worship with us today, shall we?